Attack of the killer smart watches – Rumors would have you believe that no fewer than four companies are readying smart watches for public consumption. Problem is, the public hasn’t asked for them.

How Google crushed the RSS industry – The real victims were companies that had planned to build RSS sync engines. Google stomped them out of business like Godzilla sweeping through Tokyo.

Facebook adds weather feature for eventgoers – Facebook is helping people know how to dress for an event, a new feature in its seemingly unending evolution that is puzzling because it offers users the chance to hop off the social networking site. Now when you set up an event on Facebook you can let guests know whether they should wear a jacket, sunglasses or snow boots thanks to an integration with the online weather service Weather Underground.

The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013 – Every year, TIME recognizes those who exemplify the very best wit and wisdom Twitter has to offer. Here are the 140 feeds that inspire us to laugh, learn or shake our heads in wonderment.

Bills would require warrants for police to use GPS tracking – A group of U.S. lawmakers has introduced legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered search warrants before obtaining a suspect’s mobile phone location or GPS data, instead of using prosecution-issued subpoenas. Several privacy and civil liberties groups praised the introduction of the bill. Wyden and Chaffetz introduced similar bills in 2011, but that legislation did not pass.

McAfee warns of malware targeting point-of-sale systems – Dubbed vSkimmer, the Trojan-like malware is designed to infect Windows-based computers that have payment card readers attached to them, McAfee security researcher Chintan Shah said last week in a blog post. The malware was first detected by McAfee’s sensor network on February 13 and is currently being advertised on cybercriminal forums as being better than Dexter, a different POS malware program that was discovered back in December.

Web addresses put Indian govt at risk – Government’s technology department lists Web-based GMail and Yahoo accounts as e-mail correspondence, which a security player believes can expose the Indian government to a significant security vulnerability.

Indonesia to regulate online shopping – New laws will be introduced this year in the country to minimize fraud and build consumer trust in e-commerce, including the use of Indonesian domain names.

Company News:

Apple Acquires WiFiSLAM for its Indoor Location-Tracking Tech – And here you thought it was tricky enough to get the correct directions to your driving destination via the GPS-friendly app on your iPhone. Apple’s allegedly upping the ante in the world of location services by acquiring a company that could help give it more of a foothold in the relatively unexplored world of indoor mapping.

T-Mobile kills off the wireless contract – The wireless carrier today seems to have finally done away entirely with contracts for wireless customers, part of broader changes intended to make T-Mobile more competitive.

Webopedia Daily:

Gorilla Glass – An advanced alkali-aluminosilicate glass technology developed by Corning that is used in a variety of screens for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets as well as displays for PCs and TVs. The scratch- and impact-resistant qualities in Gorilla Glass, combined with its incredibly thin profile, enable it to protect device displays without adding significant weight or interfering with capacitive touch screens. The most recent development in Gorilla Glass was announced in early 2013. Gorilla Glass 3 with Native Damage Resistance offers “enhanced scratch resistance, reduced scratch visibility and better retained strength once a scratch does occur,” according to Corning. The first product to employ Gorilla Glass III, the Samsung Galaxy S4, became available in April 2013.

Games and Entertainment:

Wii U sales so poor retailers considering scaling back support – We’ve known for months now that sales of the Wii U have been pretty terrible. Figures for US sales in January totaled just 59,000 units. February saw that figure improve only slightly to 64,000 units. That’s in stark contrast to the launch in November and subsequent sales of 890,000 consoles before the end of 2012.

Blizzard Releases In-Game Footage for Diablo III on PS3 – It’s the (gaming) world’s worst-kept secret: The console port of Blizzard’s Diablo 3 to Sony’s PlayStation 3 (and ultimately, the PlayStation 4). Blizzard’s been teasing what the game might look and feel like since its official announcement last month, but it’s taken until now for eager demon-killers to get their hands on an actual video of Diablo 3 on a living room console. Unless, of course, you’re one of the many attendees at this year’s PAX East, where Blizzard is putting the game on full display.

Cable-Free HBO GO? 10 Shows to Watch – For years, HBO was the exclusive province of cable and satellite providers. Now, HBO’s chief executive has raised the possibility of freeing HBO’s services from the cable monopoly and offering them directly to consumers. We run down our 10 favorite shows on HBO, or 10 reasons you should be excited about the possibility of it actually going a la carte.

Scrooge McDuck will make a cane-wielding comeback in DuckTales Remastered – Today Capcom announced that Scrooge McDuck — the world’s richest duck — will return to gaming with DuckTales Remastered. The game, which is scheduled for Summer 2013, will be published by Capcom and developed by WayForward Technologies. It is slated for the Wii U, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Stop the Cyborgs: The Anti-Google Glass Movement – At first, I thought this was a joke. People aren’t afraid of Web browsers, laptops, cameras, or voice recognition system; your phone can do all that right now. So why would anyone be afraid of glasses with those things built in? It doesn’t make sense to me, but it seems that people are genuinely afraid. And the product isn’t even available yet. I don’t think it will last, but Google has clearly hit a nerve.

ICANN’s CEO sees crucial times in efforts for a free Internet – Defenders of a free and open Internet are “facing a pretty dangerous time right now,” as countries that want censorship and control of the Internet push their agendas at the International Telecommunications Union and other forums, ICANN leader Fadi Chehadé said last week.

Liability Issues Will Plague the Future of Social Media – A lawsuit involving hate speech on Twitter begs for an international treaty governing freedom of speech. This highlights a rudimentary problem with the Internet: the lack of international treaties regarding material published on the Internet. I have personally advocated for this for over 15 years.

Today’s Quote:

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.”

– John Gaule

Today’s Free Downloads:

SystemRescueCd 3.5.0 – SystemRescueCd is a Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions.

Tweaking.com – Advanced System Tweaker 2.0.0 – Tweaking.com – Advanced System Tweaker is a central hub for any kind of tweak or anything else that can be done via registry files, commands and vbscript files. 100 new tweaks!

4 responses to “Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – March 25, 2013”

It’s amazing to read Ed Bott crucify Google over RSS issues when the same can be said for all the major players including Microsoft and Apple.
Ed also can’t be expected to criticize what butters his bread.
All corporations only answer to their stockholders and when something is no longer profitable the item is dropped. The ramifications aren’t the concern of the giant corporations.
This certainly doesn’t mean that it’s right or something to be condoned but, it’s an unpleasant fact we all live with.
.

I don’t want one. Apart from anything else, at my age my arms would need to be about twice their current length for me to be able to read it. I suppose that I could get a pair of Google glasses to help; but wait! If I had the glasses I wouldn’t need the watch.

Have to wonder though – if ANY of these writers are old enough to have read Dick Tracy in the newspaper comics. I doubt it – it seems most of them are in “shock and awe” at the prospect of a “smart watch.” What a laugh. 🙂

Best,

Bill

Follow Tech Thoughts via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blogroll

Daves Computer Tips
Our goal is, and always has been, “To become the best source of easy to understand, plain English computer and tech information on the internet while helping others to better understand computers and technology.”

Manitoulin Island Web Design
Pat Keenan here, at your service, but call me POKO – I’m a nighthawk staying up until all hours so if you need to call, kindly do so after 11AM.

Paul Andrew Russell ~ poet
An excellent poetry site written by my good friend. If you’re looking for prose to ponder then, drop in on Paul.

What's On My PC
The intent of this blog is to share my knowledge base of computers, software, gadgets and information technology in terms that is presentable and understandable to ALL; and at the same time feed my obsession for information technology by learning from oth